

“Only different people change the world,” Granny used to say. “No one normal has ever changed a crapping thing.” – 3.75/5 stars!
Attention! This book contains: secret languages, superheroes, quality literature, letters, bullying, baby brothers, gryffindor scarves, superheroes, cigarettes, hospitals, fairy tales, chocolate, hand sanitizer, big dogs, monsters and grief.

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy, standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.
When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s letters lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and totally ordinary old crones, but also to the truth about fairytales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

I admit this is my least favorite book from Fredrik Backman, but I still liked it a lot. It’s not a bad book by any means, but there’s something about it that I just didn’t connect with. I loved every single book I read from him, but I just felt like the story was lacking something.
The main plot is great. The relationship between the grandmother and Elsa is just beautiful, and it’s any child’s dream. I loved how her grandmother always stood up for her and protected her at all costs, and I thought it was adorable how they had their own secret language and stories. But the rest of the book where Elsa goes on her “adventure” just wasn’t that interesting to me.
Fredrik Backman writes the most amazing, memorable characters, and this book was no exception to the rule. I admit I didn’t love Elsa as a character, but I really liked her granny, the monster and Britt-Marie – just to name a few. They’re all so unique that it feels like they’re real people!
The writing was amazing as always – I wouldn’t expect anything else, to be honest. And can I just say how much I loved the Harry Potter references? So unexpected, but I loved it! And the ending was so adorable! I thought it was a great conclusion to the story, in my opinion.
I also did not expect this book to mention Britt-Marie! I had no idea there were crossover characters in his books! Fortunately I haven’t read Britt-Marie yet, which is a good thing because this book came out first. I’m excited for that one!
Like I said, not my favorite book from him but I still enjoyed it!
xoxo,
